Sunset state of mind - Pink sky in the evening....

After another gorgeous day in sunny worthing we were treated to an amazing pre GoodGym stunning sunset. It won't be long before we will be meeting in the light evenings again. Saying that the turn out so far this year has been really fantastic with record attendance figures.

Back to this evening it was great to meet and introduce our new recruit John, to the group .John's son goes to GoodGym in Bristol and had been encouraging his father to get involved for sometime so tonight was the night! We do hope that you enjoyed yourself and that it will the first of many Monday night visits to us:)

The rest of the team tonight comprised of Barbara, Sue, Daisy, Katie, Nick. John, Belinda, Anne, Paul, Tamsin, Emily and Jay. After the sign in ,health and safety briefing and a chat about RED January 3 walkers set off as the advance party with 3 groups of runners not far behind.

The directions were crystal clear this evening and they paid off as no one got lost and the group all stayed in their sub groups ensuring there was no lone running.

Spring is in the air

This evening we gave a helping hand to our friends at The Rowans, a specialist day and rehabilitation centre for brain injured patients. Debbie, the assistant manager is always the member of staff who stays to facilitate our visits and tonight was no exception. Tonight Debbie asked us to anti bac and clean all the gym equipment in 5 rooms. The team were so super speedy at this that we even had some time to play with the battle ropes!

Battle of the ropes

Amongst heckling and lost of cheery support everyone had 30 seconds on the ropes with a mixture of smiles, laughs and grimaces! In a squat position arms were pumped on the ropes and heart rates nicely elevated. I think everyone agreed that, surprisingly, 30 seconds was enough to get a great workout.

Back to the track

The groups all set off back the way they came ( to avoid any confusion! ) and arrived at the track , still in their groups within minutes of each other.

Tonight was all about the crocodile drill and the team certainly snapped it up with their usual enthusiasm, energy and complete eagerness to push their bodies outside their comfort zones. Thats all true - right?! John ( the one that likes beer and has now done 52 GG good deeds) even admitted that he enjoyed the session tonight - my job is done:)

After some extended stretches in pairs we wrapped another Monday night.

Don't forget every deed and every kilometer counts this January and we only have 11 days left to claim our worthy place at the top of the silver leader board. we might be small but we are mighty. Lets prove it!

Have a great week :)

Julia xx

Life on the dark side

Meeting at our alternative meeting point at Worthing Leisure Centre, it was our first completely dark task after the clocks went back on Saturday. Despite this, the turn was fantastic with Duncan, Barbara, Sue, Daisy, Natasha and Steve, Paul, John and Belinda, Ros, Nick and Graham and Gill turning out on this cold late October spooky night.

Come as you aren't

Shout out to Belinda for halloween outfit and John for his head attire showing that they read last weeks run report right to the last paragraph when I mentioned that dressing up was encouraged.

Lift your spirits

This happens every Monday and not just at Halloween! Its always a joy to hear all the happy banter before, during and after the task. Tonight was no exception with lots of chatter . The walking team set off a little in advance of the runners to The Rowans, our task venue for the evening,

With the front runners taking a Duncan detour it meant that the back group ended up ahead of the front group :) However I'm was just grateful that no one got lost! We all arrived within minutes of each other where we had a cheerful and smiley welcome from Debbie, assistant manager and all together lovely person, who always stays to keep the centre open both for the task and our fitness session tonight.

Creeping it real

Debbie outlined all the tasks and all the team spread out in all different directions. Natasha immediately headed for some dismantling of various bits of equipment. Gill and Graham set about the furniture moving followed by some sprucing up of the training kitchen. Nick, Paul and Belinda opted for the painting task, Duncan and John headed out into the garden to pick up a glut of apples. Barbara, Ros, Daisy, Sue and Steve got on their gardening gloves to do some pruning and weeding in the pretty courtyard garden. 40 short minutes later and it was time to down tools. No time to reflect on the multiple tasks we had just achieved, it was time for some fitness training.

Frankly I don't think I'm that scary !

Loosely based on the cross fit/ HIIT principles I wanted to introduce the team to the idea of intense bursts of exercise over a really short period of time followed by a short recovery.

With this in mind the team partnered up for 8 rounds of alternate 20 seconds of exercises followed by 20 seconds rest. Exercises comprised of squats, squat jumps, mountain climbers. lunges, pres ups,, burpees, press up jacks and star jumps. Winter training has arrived and not a pike in sight!

Ooh la la

The team fell back into their groups with John breaking rank from the walking group to join the runners after being enticed by the gorgeous Natasha . Was it her looks,accent, personality or persuasive powers that put the smile back on John's face and the energy back in his legs? Answers on the whats app thread please!

I would like to call it careful planning that all 3 groups arrived back within minutes of each other. What a delight it was to see the aforementioned pair doing an extra lap (of honour ) around the track. With stretches, goodbyes together with I can't make next week/ see you next week promises the group dispersed in all directions. Some went home for beer whilst others went home to think of puns and write run reports!

In other news

• The Tide of Light Dark Run is this Saturday. GG are marshalling. Meet at the parkrun finish at 5pm. DM me if you would like to be involved.
• The November burpee challenge launches on this Thursday 1st November. 30 days of commitment to get leaner, healthier and fitter for running. Commit to 100 a day every day for 30 days or work up gradually with 25 per day, 50 week 2, 75 week 3 and 100 week 4. I started mine 2 weeks ago together with a dry spell month too and can thoroughly recommend it.

Have a great week everyone !

Julia :) xx

Still on the light side- just

I can’t even pretend that tonight resembled anything like our normal sunny Worthing status. It was an overcast, dull and at times drizzly evening but having said this, the vibes were happy ones with the usual bucket load of laughs and smiles.

It put a big smile on my face to see Anneback. One of our most loyal and regular participants, Anne has been struggling with a foot injury recently but made it back tonight to join our walking group. Special mention to our walk leader and task force member Belinda who is feeling frustrated with her ongoing injuries. This is definitely a case of ‘the spirit is willing but your knees have other ideas’ We all wish you a speedy recovery. Thank you for continuing to turn out every single Monday night ( massive kudos for this too) and will, of course, be here to support you with your return to full fitness.

Nick joined the walkers who set off promptly whilst the rest of us waited for the blast of our superhero cakeman Jay to fly through the doors minus 2 minutes to the start time and brimming with his usual energy.

Fresh from two, yes two personal best performances over the weekend John joined the running team together with Emily, Steve, Natacha also fresh from her second ever parkrun and GG task together with Ros, Gill and Graham and finally Barbara who joined us at the task.

This evening we returned to visit our friend Debbie at The Rowans, a day centre and gym which supports brain injured patients back to fitness.

Don’t follow me I’m lost too

With several differently paced groups heading off Ros and Emily teamed up to run together. Just as well there was a group behind to mop them up to get them back on track after a slight detour that they decided to take!

Turning tables

After a warm welcome from Debbie she had the unenviable task of organising enough tasks for 13 of us in a short space of time!

First at the task Gill and Graham set about dismantling tables in a room that needed clearing whilst the rest of the team split into several other groups who also were dismantling tables, moving furniture and painting door frames. Our two superheroes, Jay and Steve, wasted no time some heavy weight relocation of chairs and other bits and pieces.

Painting- we had it taped

Carrying on from previous tasks at The Rowans where we had painted skirting boards and door frames Ros , Emily, Natacha headed off armed with their tools to paint a smallish corridor. Anne was in charge of keeping the girls on the straight and narrow with the masking tape ensuring the entire tricky angle and edges were carefully marked out. With Jay, Barbara and Nick at a loose end they squeezed into the tight space to assist. This sub team were entertained by Jay’s weekly ‘life and love’ updates. Meanwhile Mr and Mrs R were entrenched in the laundry room at the back of the building carefully liaising the storage of all the table fixtures and fittings.

Your hard work will pay off in the long run

After a slightly extended 30 minutes that turned into 40 it was hard to call time when we could have stayed and finished the painting task. However time waits for no one and it was time to move onto the next phase of the evening. We had a quick look outside at the scene of our last task, our ground force pond makeover, before reconvening for a humerous finish photo and GG briefing for the coming few weeks.

Jay unashamedly sacked off fitness for the pub whilst the rest of us headed back to the leisure centre for our favourite fitness session on the track.

My legs aren’t qwoperating

Sprint the straights , jog the bends and then repeat twice in each direction. That was the instruction and off ( most of the team) went.

Probably one of the funniest parts of the evening we finished with some leg strengthening exercises designed for runners . This included our very own version of a farmers walk designed to strengthen calf muscles and usually done with weights by walking on toes. GG Worthing put their very own slant on this and what sports they were! Video evidence is available for confirmation of this ( If it doesn't upload! )

In other news

• The biggest story of the week is Duncan and Lucy epic 100km Thames Path run last Saturday in aid of Help the Heroes and Turning Tides Homeless charity. HUGE congratulations and MASSIVE kudos to you both . Your GG family are immensely proud of you both .

• Super Saturday and Sunday this week also included a 5k PB for John on Saturday followed bya 10K PB for Jay and John At the Littlehampton 10k . This race was also Barbara's 2nd fastest 10 k , even though she has only just recovered from injury and not run this distance since March! Kudos to all 3 of you.

• Next week its celebration time again. Its GoodGym's 10th birthday and also Johns birthday together with his ( very ) early retirement party . We will be meeting at a new task . It will be the sea end of Sea Lane FERRING ( not where the cafe is in Goring ) Meet at 6:15pm . If you have a rake please bring one as we will be raking grass verges. Following this, we will heading out a run which will incorporate a functional fitness session. Afterwards it's everyone back for a party at John and Belinda's house.

Happy days are ahead of us

Have a great week

Julia x

Suns out-puns out

On another glorious sunny evening it was great to welcome newbie Daisy to the group. A fellow runner, parkrunner and triathlete Daisy is looking to combine volunteering with some Monday night running. She picked a great night to come along as the the team were on great form tonight.

The first person I saw was Ros . I greeted her with great delight as we had missed her ! It was short lived as poor Ros had just had her keys run over when they fell off her whilst cycling to meet us. This resulted in some buckled sad looking bits of metal. Concerned she wouldn't be able to get back into her flat she headed off to try and resolve the situation ( later we found out that she had managed to get back into her flat and wouldn't need a bed for the night! )

I was also extra pleased to see Christinaarriving in her brand new red t'shirt ! Wow you looked amazing in it and you also posted a great tweet promoting GG Worthing too . Thank you :)

Tonights line up also included Barbara, Michelle, Nick, Jay, Lucy, Duncan, Belinda and John . (Another) special mention to John who totally smashed his parkrun PB by over 90 seconds on Saturday.

With some clear instructions on routes we headed off in 3 running groups . I was hoping that we wouldn't have a repeat of last week when I mislaid 8 runners in the space of 1 mile! Tonight we headed off to see Debbie at The Rowans, a rehabilitation centre for people with brain injuries. This is a regular task venue thats always great to head back to.

Mulch ado about nothing ? Or mulch support ?

We were warmly greeted by Debbie who had organised a great task for us this evening . Within the grounds there was a smallish pond that was completely covered with weeds and bind weed . Our job was to clear the bad stuff and fill it with good stuff including a mulchy combination of potting compost and bark . We also needed to make it look pretty too with some gorgeous lavender, flame plants and bedding plants.

In addition there was 1 tree and a large shrub that needed to be taken down . Finally there was some tree pruning to be done where branches were over hanging paths.

So ... plenty of work to keep the team occupied and out of mischief tonight!

Jay and Nick set about the trees , Duncan , Lucy and Michelle the pruning and the rest of the team set to work on the tangled mass of the pond.

S 'pond taneous

Lots of the above extreme behaviour ( thats my team! ) with Belinda virtually climbing into the pond and Jay digging like a terrier burying his bones ( or in his case, cakes! )

The whole team achieved an incredible ground force makeover and the results were pretty stunning ! Check out my amazing photographic skills ( ha ha)

We took a few moments to stand back and admire, not just tonights work of art, but also the fruits of our labour from our last visit in the pretty courtyard garden.

With a fond farewell to the lovely Debbie we headed back with a marginally shorter and prettier route back to the leisure centre.

Keeping on track

Making use of the track again was a bonus.A great way to work on speed and endurance.

Tonight the team set about doing a pyramid 100 metre sprint / rest then the same with 200 , 300 and 400 . Duncan Jay and possibly Lucy( who wasn't sure what she did ) then worked backwards down the pyramid finishing on 100.

There were some personal records set particularly for Belinda. Check out the great photo of Lucy and Belinda comparing stats!

Stretches and well done to all made a happy finish to the evening with special mention to first timer Daisy. We hope you will come back often! Also kudos to new member Christina rocking the red. A fair amount of heckling accompanied the sensible stuff but thats quite a normal occurence at GG Worthing.

What's that ?

Just a final reminder that we do have a very active and entertaining whats app group so if you aren't already in it and would like to let me know and I will add you ! Theres only one pre requisite for this and that is that you know how to use the mute button!

Next week

Meet at Splashpoint LC

Run / task/ fun fitness session/ swim/ fizz or pub

All welcome !

Have a great week everyone . Run hard, play hard and have fun in the sun :)

Julia xxx

My 3 Musketeers

On a miserably rainy day in not so sunny Worthing there was a fairly continuous buzz of whats app activity throughout the day with a plethora of good reasons why regular participants couldn't attend this evening .

However my GG heroes saved the day with Paul, Emily and Barbara being the sole survivors of the team tonight.

Rain didn't stop play

Rain certainly did not stop my 3 super heroes and what a lovely evening we had. With a 2.6 km run to the task we arrived at The Rowans to be warmly greeted by Debbie who was totally unphased by the continuous rain fall and had no doubt whatsoever that we would turn up!

We will survive

There were was a whole load of love for our task tonight. With bedding plants and shrubs that needed planting together with some extensive pruning ( cutting down) that Paul undertook the small but mighty team pulled out all the stops to create an impressive result. We re traced our steps on the run back to the LC to ensure the daily June challenge was completed :)

Rain did stop play

With the rain falling steadily we exchanged fitness for feel good and called it a day on the evening.

Next week is Barbara's 50th task together with Beth covering the session whilst Nick and I are away.

Have fun all of you ! Work hard play hard and see you in 2 weeks for a picnic on the beach with Barbara for her unofficial 50th party.

Julia x xx

Another A' Blazing evening

On what turned out to be a historic evening of breaking news in Paris, nearly 300 miles across the channel in Worthing it was just another normal (are they ever normal?!) evening for the GoodGym team in Worthing.

This evening our task was to return to The Rowans for our routine visit to give a helping hand to this day centre that specialises in the care and rehabilitation of brain injured patients. On chatting to Debbie the manager there our visits became even more valuable when I heard, later in the evening, of further cuts to staffing budgets and resources.

Rough and stumble avoiding the bears

With early birds Gill, Barbara and John already ready and raring to go it was a relief to see Jay and Lucy arrive safely after Jay had literally thrown himself down in a commando roll to fend off a bear attack on Lucy . What a hero and only a few scratches to add to growing collection to show for it ( We have to go along with his little fantasies! )

We also warmly welcomed Paul and Paula . Special mention to Anne and Nick who were both hand in hand ( not in a literal sense ) on their 48th good deed. Will it be a joint 50th celebration for them both ? Yippee! More prosecco Mondays on their way !

Nick headed off with the walkers and a short time later the runners set off too together with Gill on her bike.

Yet again the time machine kicked in with the walkers apparating at the task before the runners.

GG MUA's make up courtyard ( make up artists! )

The task was well under way with Nick , John and Paula already upended with some weeding and path clearing. Joined by the runners everyone pitched in for a 30 minute makeover of this attractive colourful courtyard which is enjoyed by the patients during the day.

It was interesting to see the OCD tendencies of some of the team with some addictive weed clearing of the lines between the blocks. closely followed by Jay scurrying around with further brrooom broom moments.

With the walkers setting off whilst the runners finished clearing up, the team were eagerly anticipating their promised 800 metre efforts on the track.

Amazingly the runners just managed to arrive back at base just in front of the walkers and nobody got lost!

Worthing Bears thunder around Worthing Leisure Centre

There was no sign of the basketball team this evening but the GG team made their own carbon footprint on the centre with the fitness element of the workout tonight.

Barbara had requested that we focus on increasing her speed and endurance in readiness for some relays in a few months time.

With this in mind the team did 2 x 800 metre efforts at an individual pace that was designed to challenge them. As they lapped I checked on their perceived exertion and guided them on how to maximise their efforts through pushing themselves a bit harder than they might choose to.

Collectively this was the hardest I had seen the team work for a while with heart rates running sky high. Arguably this level of effort together with other strength work and running drills will give the most improvement on speed and lets be honest, we all want to run faster don't we ?!

Next week its Easter Monday but we will still be meeting at Splashpoint leisure Centre for our task which is cooking at Byron Road. It would be great to see as many as possible of you.

Sending get well wishes to our very own GG ( temporarily fallen) angel Belinda who after her epic week of angel duties,working ,good deeds and volunteering,unsurprisingly succumbed to a bit of cold lurgy. we are looking forward to seeing you wearing your wings next week B.

Until then I would like to wish you a very happy, energetic but peaceful Easter.

Julia X